NBA All-Star Game’s likely tourney format would feature top coaches in East, West: Sources

The coaching staffs from the top two teams in the NBA’s Eastern and Western Conferences would direct the four groups of All-Stars in a new tournament competition being considered for the league’s annual midseason classic in San Francisco, multiple league sources said Thursday.

As The Athletic first reported earlier this month, the NBA is considering sweeping changes to its All-Star Game that would be implemented in February, following several years of a disappointing on-court product by the league’s top players.

A four-team tournament setting is likely, multiple league sources said, with three teams of eight NBA All-Stars and a fourth team of rookies and sophomores who win the Rising Stars Challenge on All-Star Friday. The format being strongly considered would match the Rising Stars format, in which teams would play to a target score of 40 in a tournament semifinal and 25 in the championship — both of which would be held on All-Star Sunday in lieu of a traditional East versus West All-Star Game with 12-minute quarters.

The league, players’ union, coaches and team executives are still ironing out all of the details, including prize money doled out to winners and losers of the tournament and how the teams are selected — but among the proposals being most strongly considered is for the coaching staff from the top two teams in each conference to handle coaching duties in the new All-Star tournament.

If coaches were selected Thursday, then, the staffs of Kenny Atkinson in Cleveland and Joe Mazzulla in Boston would represent the East at All-Star weekend, while the staffs of Steve Kerr in Golden State and Mark Daigneault in Oklahoma City would represent the West.

Under the league’s new collective bargaining contract with the players’ union, players on the winning team at the All-Star Game would receive $100,000 and players on the losing side would receive $25,000. However, that agreement was struck before the league began serious discussions with players — including, notably, perennial All-Star and likely host for the 2025 game, Stephen Curry — about changing the format.

If the new format is adopted, as expected, there would be more than one losing team.

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(Photo of Jalen Brunson and Anthony Davis at the 2024 All-Star Game: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)